LEGISLATED Ontario · income · housing
Crisis OW $733 frozen since 2018 Toronto 1-bed $1,985 vs ODSP $1,436 RGI 1-bed wait 15 years CDB $204.20 after “lift out of poverty” Shelter occupancy 98–100% Waterloo legal fees $1.7M to clear tents Crisis OW $733 frozen since 2018 Toronto 1-bed $1,985 vs ODSP $1,436 RGI 1-bed wait 15 years CDB $204.20 after “lift out of poverty” Shelter occupancy 98–100% Waterloo legal fees $1.7M to clear tents

Brief / The promise

Canada Disability Benefit Act · C-22

They said lift.
They wrote two hundred dollars.

Watch the record. The Prime Minister, parliamentary secretaries, second reading, Senate amendments — the same sentence, over and over: lift persons with disabilities out of poverty. The regulation that followed pays $204.20 a month. $6.70 a day. Only with a Disability Tax Credit. Stacked onto a full ODSP cheque and the usual credits, a single adult in Toronto is still under the deep-poverty line. That is not a rounding error. It is a broken federal promise published as a benefit, on top of a provincial cheque that already cannot rent a room.

Trudeau, Zuberi, Kusmierczyk, C-22 second reading and Senate amendments. The sentence is “out of poverty.” The amount is $204.20.

The sentence

“Lift out of poverty”

On the record, repeatedly

The regulation

$204.20

July 2026–June 2027 maximum

Stacked ODSP + CDB + credits

$1,767.20

Still under deep poverty

Toronto official poverty line

$2,444

Daily Bread 2025 · single adult

Ontario’s only courtesy is that it does not claw CDB back from OW or ODSP. That is the least it could do. A $204 attachment against a $1,985 rent is an insult published as a program.

The C-22 ledger

Start with the published ODSP maximum. Add the credits a low-income single adult can actually receive. Add CDB at the current maximum. Then look at every line the government itself uses to define poverty.

Published stack · single adult

ODSP maximum (July 2026)$1,436
Canada Disability Benefit$204.20
CGEB (ex-GST/HST)$57
Ontario Trillium (approx.)$70
Stacked month$1,767.20

CDB requires an approved Disability Tax Credit. Many people on ODSP do not have one. Without it the stack is $1,563.

Against the lines they named

Deep poverty (75% MBM / Daily Bread)$1,833
Gap to deep poverty after the “lift”−$65.80
Official poverty (Daily Bread Toronto)$2,444
Gap to official poverty−$676.80
Market Basket Measure target used here$2,620
Gap to MBM−$852.80
Toronto 1-bed AMR$1,985
Stack versus rent, before food−$217.80

The stacked “lift” does not clear deep poverty, does not clear official poverty, and does not rent a purpose-built 1-bedroom. C-22 as funded is legislated poverty with a press line.

What CDB would have to be

Move the slider. The base under CDB is ODSP plus the two credits — $1,563. The question is how large the federal top-up must be before the promise is no longer a lie.

$204 $6.70 / day

“I don’t want to die, but I can’t afford to live.” The ministerial answer is that provinces should step up and that MAID is a Charter right. Neither is an income.

The end of a $204 promise

When the safety net is this thin, people say the quiet part. They do not want to die. They cannot afford to live. A rights-based system does not leave medical assistance in dying as the visible alternative to a $1,436 month plus $204. That is disgusting. It is legislated destitution with a clinical door.

Farha’s test is simpler than any talking point: housing is central to being alive. Dignity is the core of the right. $6.70 a day after a decade of speeches is not dignity. Raise CDB until the stacked income clears the Market Basket Measure. Index OW. Set the shelter line to average market rent. Build RGI until the wait is months. Anything less is another press conference.

The demand Write Ottawa